title: Tobacco addiction augments obesity and carcinogenesis: Matter of concern for Indian patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Life-style and tobacco addiction is the major risk factors for cancer progression in all over the world. Knowledge gaps between tobacco addiction, obesity and cancer in Indian patients brought an interdisciplinary group of investigators together to discuss the present study.
  
  
  METHODS
  We calculated the body mass index (BMI) of all the patients (N = 927) who were diagnosed with cancer for its treatment. National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria were used to categorize the patients. All the patients of this disease could be contacted in person to find out the history of the disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The frequency of addiction in urban cancer patient was found to be about 53.3% and in a rural area it was only 33.7%. Tobacco addiction was independently associated with younger age of cancer patient (odds ratio [OR] 2.242; 95% Confidence interval (CI) 1.653-3.042), obese (OR 7.433; 95% CI 3.746-14.750), overweight (OR 4.676; 95% CI 3.381-6.468) and advanced stage of cancer (OR 11.950; 95% CI 5.283-27.030).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tobacco consumption appears to be a major contributor to cancer in younger age with elevated BMI in India. Rapid changes in diet and life-style, increase in tobacco consumption appear to be strongly associated with the carcinoma in this middle-income country.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Varanasi, India.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tewari
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Shukla
keywords: Addiction; body mass index; cancer; cancer stage; obesity; tobacco